SQL Server 2005: Users will upgrade ... eventually

With less than a month to go before the first major SQL Server upgrade in five years, users seem to be divided into two camps: those who are going into production as fast as they can and those who will upgrade sometime in the next couple of years.

According to Noel Yuhanna, senior analyst for Forrester Research Inc., in Cambridge, Mass., the difference reflects Microsoft's success in interesting larger customers with more critical databases in SQL Server. It's the heavy hitters who need the enhanced features of SQL Server 2005, while the small to medium-sized businesses that have been SQL Server 2000's mainstays will probably wait.